Uptown 2, 3 Train Delays Caused By Basketball On Tracks, MTA Says

UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN — Straphangers who found themselves on a local instead of express 2 or 3 train during Thursday's morning commute have a basketball to thank, according to the MTA.

A basketball that had gotten onto the tracks just after 10 a.m. caused a train to brake near West 72nd Street, and forced transit officials to reroute the southbound 2 and 3 trains between the 72nd Street station and Times Square, according to MTA tweets.

The trains were rerouted only briefly and were back running to their regular stops by 10:19 a.m., tweets show.

The basketball is far from the first, or strangest, item to cause subway delays.

The MTA has dealt with everything from seltzer bottles, to unspecified debris, to dogs and, more often than you might think, people on the tracks getting in the way of subways running smoothly.

Most recently, a spout of delays on five subway lines was blamed on a bed-bug sighting at one of the MTA's control towers in Queens on Wednesday.

The E, F, M, R and W trains were hit by delays after an MTA worker reported seeing one of the bugs in a control tower in Forest Hills at 4:30 p.m., according to NYC Transit President Andy Byford. The towers are control centers for track switches.

The MTA immediately evacuated workers in the tower to fumigate and subway service got back to normal about 8:30 p.m., Byford said.